In announcing her appointment, Obama promised a new level of “coordination across the government, and my personal engagement as president” on energy and climate policy. He said Browner will have the power to “demand integration among different agencies; cooperation between federal, state and local governments; and partnership with the private sector.”

Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said, “The energy and global warming problems are so broad, it’s a necessity to have a quarterback.”

Carol Browner was the EPA chief under Bill Clinton.Since that time she has served on the boards of several environmental organizations.She will be directing an activist environmental agenda from the White House and we should all be afraid.

Few personality traits are more dangerous in an agency head than zealotry, viciousness, and an absence of integrity. Anyone one of them can send things careening down the wrong path. When you wrap them all together and top them off with a mediocre intellect you have Carol Browner.

Her career at EPA was marked by four overarching themes.

First, she was more than willing, one might say she was even enthusiastic about it, to utterly mangle science and mathematics in pursuit of the environmental chimera du jour. The indispensable site, Junk Science, has a veritable cornucopia of examples from Browner’s tenure at EPA.

Third, she operated with a callous disregard for the rule of law (here | here).

Lastly, she was prepared to do whatever her political master asked her to do.

National Review has a good roll up of who the players will be in environment and energy, but they miss the huge point. The nominees at Energy and EPA are politically aligned with Browner’s goal (the new Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu, is not supportive of the Yucca Mountain repository which doesn’t seem to mean any increase in nuclear power generation is on the horizon) and they are political non-entities without Washington patrons other than the President. This means that Browner’s beliefs, and more importantly her personality, will not be subjected to challenge or scrutiny.

To be clear, Browner would be a dangerous person to have in this position at any time in our history. Having her in this position as the nation staggers through the most demanding economic times in four generations has the potential to be catastrophic.